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Am I getting this right?
The Bush Junta has been feeding the media with newspackages that are pro Bush propaganda? Financed by state funds? This can hardly be legal.. even in the US?_________________A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"

I thnk it is completely kosher to discuss politics here. If artists stopped to care, well.. then the madness would really start. _________________A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"

I don't know (personally) any artist that is not politically interested and concerned in some way, and we alll know that a lot of good and groundbreaking music has been political commentary both in the lyrics and the moods of the music.

Somehow I'm not the least surprised about the Bush/Fox thing. I seem to remember having read somwhere that this Bush dude has repeatedly proved himself a liar, or something to that effect... it very sad that he remains in office.

imho, the problem is not that the bush adminstration is providing packaged news items to the press (every group does this, including the dems, and the "liberal artist media")...it's that the press is willing to print/broadcast the stuff without scrutinizing it and without providing commentary, context, or analysis. it comes down to cost, and it's cheaper for the media if someone else does the work and hands it to them. being mad at the bush adminstration for writing the stuff seems to me to be missing the point...it's the news media that you are paying to report what is happening (by watching/reading advertisments and/or subscribing)...hold them accountable for what they report.

Oh, they're accountable alright, only not to the public, but to their shareholders and plutocratic patrons. You dont think NBC isn't first and foremost accountable to GE, for instance? All they want from the public is our [manufactured] consent._________________∆ Cyx ∆

"Yeah right, who's the only one here who knows secret illegal ninja moves from the government?"
-Napoleon Dynamite

I'm reminded of a piece of dialogue from the movie The Russia House (1990):

CIA Interrogator: Have you ever met any jazz musicians you would describe, or who would describe themselves, as anarchists?
Bartholomew "Barley" Scott Blair (Sean Connery): Hmmm... ah, there was a trombone player, Wilfred Baker.
[the interrogator starts writing]
Bartholomew "Barley" Scott Blair: He's the only jazz musician I can think of who is completely devoid of anarchist tendencies.

I find that a rather similar rule tends to apply to us electromusicians.

cyx,
i don't know how nbc can manufacture my (or your) consent. of course they are responisible to the shareholders of ge, but the beauty of capitalism is we don't have to guess at the motives of those shareholders....it's to make money. if we don't watch nbc, if we write letters to their sponsers, if we make a public outcry then nbc is of little value to the shareholders of ge, and they will either sell to someone who wants to reform them, or they will reform nbc themselves based on what the public will watch.

i've been loving watching jon stewart cover the karl rove disgrace. no real news channel (or radio) that i have found has done as thourough a job to show (with real facts, real clips, and real analysis) the idiocy, lies, and sidestepping the bush administration is trying to pull off here.

stewart was successful in getting crossfire axed by being brutaly honest about how low quality the show was....i expect that he will continue to have an impact in the news world because this brutal honesty (even in a comedy show) is proving more popular than the standard news format...it's a good sign.

i don't know how nbc can manufacture my (or your) consent. of course they are responisible to the shareholders of ge, but the beauty of capitalism is we don't have to guess at the motives of those shareholders....it's to make money. if we don't watch nbc, if we write letters to their sponsers, if we make a public outcry then nbc is of little value to the shareholders of ge, and they will either sell to someone who wants to reform them, or they will reform nbc themselves based on what the public will watch.

Alot of "ifs" in there which, of course, points out the practical reality that the general public (which is, at least in principle, the final say in a society masquerading as a democracy) tends to act, or not act, according to their best understanding of what is going on, and unfortunately, NBC has a tendency to be a trusted news source amongst the masses. It simply is not questioned. Those who know better are, you know, conspiracy nuts, militia sympathizers, a whole slew of epithets meant to discredit the opposition.

"As short a time ago as February, the Ministry of Plenty had issued a promise (a 'categorical pledge' were the official words) that there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the end of the present week. All that was needed was to substitute for the original promise a warning that it would probably be necessary to reduce the ration at some time in April."_________________∆ Cyx ∆

"Yeah right, who's the only one here who knows secret illegal ninja moves from the government?"
-Napoleon Dynamite

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